Easton doctor heading to Haiti

Wednesday

Jan 27, 2010 at 12:01 AMJan 27, 2010 at 1:39 PM

Easton doctor, David Mudd, is leaving Thursday, Jan. 28 for Cap Haitian in northern Haiti to work at L’Hopital Sacre-Coeur, a hospital that is grossly understaffed but was left relatively intact after the massive trembler hit.

Paula Vogler

While the people of Haiti are still struggling to find any kind of care or aid after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocked the country Jan. 12, the many surviving victims will be getting some local help at a time when they really need it.

Easton doctor David Mudd is leaving Thursday, Jan. 28, for Cap Haitian in northern Haiti to work at L’Hopital Sacre-Coeur, a hospital that is grossly understaffed but was left relatively intact after the massive quake hit.

Mudd, president of the medical staff at Caritas Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, will be traveling with Caritas Christi Health Care-Project Hope with seven other doctors and eight technicians and nurses all of whom will be sleeping on cots under mosquito netting and setting up make shift care facilities in the fields surrounding the hospital.

He said it is the plight of the people in Haiti, many who are relatives of patients at his internal medicine practice or related to members of the Good Samaritan hospital community that moved him to volunteer his time.

“I felt I needed to do something to show my support,” Mudd said. “I’m doing this because I’ve always felt that taking the oath as a physician, even with everything we deal with, we’re a very privileged group, we physicians in the United States.”

Mudd’s 10 years of experience working in emergency rooms and his ability to speak French and some Creole, a local Haitian dialect, help fit him for the task that lies ahead of him.

Sterile, well-lit and well-equipped care facilities that are commonplace in the United States will not be available to Mudd’s team as they work in less than ideal circumstances. Equipment will be run on generators as the team tries to provide care to the over 200 patients that come through the hospital each day.

“Haiti has extremely limited health care,” Mudd said. “We’ll be manning the hospital and bringing in additional surgical and medical services. All the infrastructure is gone. It’s a pretty primitive setting. You’ll come back appreciating what you have.”

Mudd said a first wave of doctors arrived at the hospital just days after the earthquake hit and were able to set up some of the structures while also bringing in a limited amount of medical supplies and medicine.

While he volunteered his services immediately, Mudd is actually in the third group of doctors who are making the trip.

Preparations for the trip included getting a multitude of shots ranging from typhoid, Hepatitis A and B to polio and a malaria prophylaxis as well as making sure his patients were covered while he is gone, something Mudd said his medical partners were more than willing to do.

Mudd said funds are still needed to continue supplying the equipment, medicines, and supplies the doctors desperately need to help the many victims.

The hospital is run by the Order of Malta, an international organization that provides health care services to some of the world’s neediest populations. Those wanting to make a donation to the relief effort can send their donation to Caritas Christi Haitian Relief Fund, c/o The Brighton Marine Health Care Center, 77 Warren St., Brighton, MA 02135.

‘The nice thing about this is you know exactly where your money is going, to this hospital,” Mudd said.

Paula Vogler can be reached at 508-967-3510 or by e-mail at writedesk84@comcast.net.